Nine days of difficult choices

Feb 10, 2018

A young Gestapo officer (August Diehl) and an imprisoned Catholic priest (Ulrich Matthes) go head to head in a battle of wills and ideas in Volker Schlöndorff’s “The Ninth Day.”

Belfast — Belfast Free Library's February Friday Night Flix films in February present Difficult Choices, hosts Karen Gleeson and Paul Sheridan’s thought-provoking selections that offer characters who have to make life-defining choices, within their religious beliefs. The movies are screened Fridays at 7 p.m. in the Abbott Room of the library, 106 High St. Admission is free.

On Feb. 16, “The Ninth Day” (2004, Germany/Luxembourg/Czech Republic) presents a life-threatening choice for the main character. Played by Ulrich Matthes, he is a fictionalized version of a real Catholic priest from Luxembourg whose World War II diary is the basis of the film. The priest has been imprisoned in the concentration camp in Dachau, along with many other fellow religious leaders. Because of a family death, he is released for nine days to go home. There, he is presented with a choice that tests his loyalties to his fellow prisoners and to his church. “The Ninth Day” is screened in German and French with subtitles and runs 98 minutes.

The Difficult Choices series will conclude Feb. 23 with “Cloud 9” (2014, USA), a family-friendly film that will be screened at 6 p.m. as part of the Belfast Winter Whoopla festivities.